Greyhound Yard

Greyhound Yard sits in the heart of Dorchester, buried beneath the Tudor Arcade shopping centre and Charles Street. It began as a Neolithic henge around 2500 BC, built from timber of six hundred trees. By the 1st century AD, the Romans turned part of the site into Durnovaria, laying streets, a forum and baths over the old henge. A Roman villa followed in the 3rd to 4th century, while later centuries saw stone robbing and new buildings rise and fall. The site’s value lies in its layers of history uncovered by archaeologists. Excavations in the 1980s revealed a Neolithic henge with twenty postholes and ritual deposits of sacrificed animals and pottery. Roman remains included a hypocaust, tessellated tiles from Room 2521 of the villa, and a town house with opus signinum floors. Finds like coins dating from before the Iron Age to 395 AD and infant burials add to its significance. Visitors to the Tudor Arcade walk over the past without knowing it. Red markers in the car park show where twenty postholes once stood. Along Charles Street, traces of Roman town houses and a villa survive in the museum. The site tells a story of ritual, Roman life and later change, all beneath modern streets.